Stories about: Xandros

Microsoft confirmed this week that it will extend the sales of Windows XP Home to OEMs beyond the current deadline of June 30, 2008, to accommodate a new class of ultra-low-cost PCs (ULCPCs) that are just beginning to pepper the market.

As the release of low-cost laptops based on Intel's upcoming Atom processor draws near, Microsoft is getting boxed into a corner. The software company plans to stop selling most Windows XP licenses after June 30, yet most of these low-cost laptops won't be powerful enough to run Vista when they arrive later this year.

Asustek Computer (Asus) predicts the Eee PC it has started selling with Microsoft Windows XP Home edition on board will outsell the original Linux-based version by a ratio of 6 to 4 in the market by the end of this year, a heady prediction considering the Windows machine costs nearly twice as much as the cheapest Linux one.

During the 2007 holiday season, there was another small, white and cheap tech device that became a hard-to-find bestseller: the ultra-portable Eee PC notebook by ASUS. (It also comes in black and three other colors, but the white model appears to be the most popular.) Despite looking like a toy, the Eee PC is a fully capable computer primarily meant for wireless Internet use. It runs Linux and includes Firefox and OpenOffice.

In the second part of Computerworld's analysis of the Office Open XML debate, platform strategy manager for Microsoft, Sarah Bond, and several Microsoft gold partners offer their views on why the OOXML format should become an internationally approved standard.

Everex may not be releasing its first US$399 ultraportable CloudBook until the end of January, but the Taiwanese PC maker is already talking about a supersize successor due later this year that will sport a bigger screen but stay under $500.

Another US$400, 2-lb. Linux-based mini-laptop will be arriving in Wal-Mart stores in the US by the end of this month to rival the Eee, AsusTek Computer's ultraportable.

Taiwanese PC maker, Asustek Computer, has confirmed rumours that it will enlarge upcoming versions of its hit Eee mini-notebook PC to accommodate 8- and 9-inch LCD screens, up from the current 7-inch LCDs the $US399 Eee now sports.

Like many gearheads, I've owned a lot of portable computers over the years -- and I've wanted to replace every last one with a smaller, sleeker upgrade, from the "luggable" Apple IIc onward. But most of those upgrades have left me disappointed: with the lack of software; with cheap, hard-to-use interfaces; and with "optional" add-ons that were in fact very much necessary to make the machine useful.

British open-source advocates will be boosted by the news that German support vendor Credativ is expanding its open-source center (OSSC) to support all distributions of Linux in the UK.

Asustek Computer's Linux-based Eee PC laptop will soon be on sale in North America and Europe, and the company plans to offer a version running Windows XP by the end of the year.